Intel Kentsfield quad-core performance preview
 

INTEL'S FIRST quad-core processor, code-named "Kentsfield," is now set to arrive in November, a few months earlier than originally anticipated. We already discussed the basic technology behind Kentsfield in our first dispatch from this year's Fall Intel Developer Forum, so I won't delve into it again here. The underlying premise is fairly simple, though: take a pair of Core 2 Duo chips, cram them together into a single package, and you have a "quad-core" processor that fits into one socket. This beast can then be dropped into a standard Core 2 Duo motherboard for mega-multiprocessing bliss under a single heat sink.

But how does such a thing perform? We have our first glimpse at an answer to that question today with a quick set of Kentsfield benchmark results compared directly to today's fastest desktop processor, the Core 2 Extreme X6800.

"AMD has promised to deliver its "4x4" platform that will achieve four cores via two sockets before the end of the year, but it looks like Kentsfield may beat them to the punch—and quite possibly with superior performance"

add the fact that there are plenty of capable mobos already and AMD is in for a beating